Poetics and Layers of Meaning in Rossetti's Forced Music

Abstract

Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s (1828-1882) large pastel drawing Forced Music (1877) has long puzzled scholars and historians. The model for the half-length nude figure is unidentified and appears in only one other Rossetti drawing. The narrative subject of Forced Music is reputedly based on a “Rosicrucian” story by Rossetti’s friend Theodore Watts-Dunton (1832-1914), but the story has not previously been identified. The work’s title, chosen by critic William Sharp, as well as its alternate name Violante, have been equally mystifying. To understand Forced Music, I contend that one must look beyond the drawing’s surface. At a narrative level, it is most likely based on Watts-Dunton’s little-known sonnet “The Rosy Scar.” The title Forced Music, however, draws upon Watts-Dunton’s conceptualization of the sonnet form in melodic terms. The work’s alternate title Violante plays still further with the dual imagery of music-making and sonneteering. Forced Music, then, jests with the viewer on multiple levels, offering a compelling visual commentary on both the “art” of poetry and the music of rhyme.

Keywords: Pre-Raphaelite, Rossetti, Dunn, Victorian, Sonnet, Sharp, Watts-Dunton